Credit card firms face mounting pressure amid fee cuts, fintech's rise

Credit card companies are struggling amid a prolonged industry downturn, company officials said Wednesday. Government-led policies aimed at lowering transaction fees have put mounting pressure on card issuers' profitability, while the rise of online payment platforms is accelerating the reshaping of the payment ecosystem, they said. In addition, the firms' ability to offset losses through lending products such as card loans is weakening due to cardholders' deteriorating financial soundness. These challenges are forcing the companies to undergo structural transformation and business reorganization in order to survive. Since the 2012 revision of the Specialized Credit Finance Business Act, financial authorities have recalculated the appropriate cost of credit card processing fees every three years, based on factors such as risk management, administrative expenses and marketing. These recalculations have consistently led to fee cuts, resulting in a steady decline in the share of merchant fee revenue in credit card firms' total income and weakening the core competitiveness of their primary buWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times